I remember my publicist said, ‘I’ve got this really good idea, we’re going to put your hands across here and do a semi-topless shoot,'” laughs Jo Beth Taylor at the memory of her one and only topless shoot – until now, that is – which featured in Woman’s Day in the early ’90s.
“I completely freaked out and said, ‘I can’t do this.'” But a bit of gentle encouragement convinced the presenter of Australia’s Funniest Home Videos, then in her early 20s, to give it a go.
“I’d never ever done any other topless shoots, so when the magazine came out it was like, ‘whoa’ because people hadn’t ever seen me like that.
“But I was so happy with the results that Channel Nine made me a great big poster [of it],” grins the affable TV star.
Joe Beth and Daryll Sommers
“I was 13 when I started out and I had a bit of puppy fat. I was told by TV producers that I was too fat for TV. That gave me a really strange opinion of my body and made me really self-conscious,’ she says.
“Even years later when I was doing TV in the ’90s, I was still seeing my body differently to how everybody else was. For years I restricted my diet and I would go to the gym obsessively, but luckily I never let it get to the point where it became an illness.”
Now 46, the married mother-of-two says she’s learned not to care what other people think.
“I studied to become an Iyengar yoga teacher trainer and that really changed everything for me,” says Jo Beth.
Joe Beth’s first shoot back in the 90s
“I used to always want to be thin but now I know it’s more important to just to be healthy, and if I put on a bit of muscle it’s good to feel strong and not worry. I’m definitely more body confident now
than when I was in my 20s.”
Jo Beth says the key to feeling sexier – and brave enough to bare all again for our photoshoot – is all about exercise and being kind to yourself. “Exercise changes the way your brain thinks because you start producing happy chemicals,” says the Hey Hey It’s Saturday star.
Joe Beth at 46-years-old
And her advice for others?
“Get out there and try new things, don’t compare yourself to others, and that sense of adventure will start to make you feel sexier. I might wish my thighs were thinner but I love my body and I’ve never been happier!”
“I’ve never been happier!”
Jo Beth’s guide to body confidence!
Incidental exercise
“Even housework keeps you fit and healthy.”
Walk
“A great way to keep fit if you don’t like running.”
Yoga
“It’s changed my mind and body, and you can do it into your 90s.”
FRUIT & VEG
“I eat a lot of fruit and vegies.”
NOT too much meat
“I haven’t eaten red meat since I was about 13. I eat a lot of fish and a little bit of chicken.”
Treat yourself
“All the healthy foods offset a glass or two of red!”
